Molded wood particle pallet having increased bending strength

Claim 1

A molded unitarily formed pallet comprising wood particles bonded together by a cured binder in compressed relation and forming a deck having an upper surface supporting a load, the deck including a lower surface and spaced apart opposite edges, and a plurality of elongated substantially parallel spaced channels supporting said deck, said channels extending from adjacent one of said edges to adjacent an opposite edge, and said channels each including spaced channel side walls extending downwardly from said deck and terminating in a planar bottom wall parallel to said deck, said side walls being integrally joined at their upper edges to said deck and being integrally joined at their lower edges to said bottom wall, said side walls including generally planar outer surfaces, and said bottom wall including an elongated lower surface, said pallet being adapted to be supported by said elongated lower surfaces of said channels, and a pair of spaced apart parallel passageways extending through said channels in a direction transverse to said channels and adapted to receive the forks of a forklift truck, said passageways being formed by openings formed in said channel side walls, said openings being aligned in the direction transverse to the direction of said channels, said deck and said elongated channels being formed by laying a loosely felted mat of wood particles in a press, and by compressing said loosely felted mat in said press, said mat including wood flakes mixed with a binder, and said wood flakes being thin and generally planar and being laid in felted relation so as to lie in substantially horizontal planes in interleaved relation, and said openings in said channel side walls being formed by pressing said mat in said press such that each of said side walls includes a pair of spaced apart projections projecting from said planar outer surface and by subsequently removing said pair of spaced apart projections.